Indian Foreign Secretary to visit Pakistan on March 3

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary of India Subrahmanyan Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan on March 3 for the first high-level visit amid tense ties of the neighboring countries soured last year, ARY News reports.

The top Indian diplomat will hold meeting with Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in Islamabad.

The two sides will discuss the matters of mutual interest during the meeting, sources said.

The Pakistan visit of Indian foreign secretary is the part of a regional tour that also includes Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The foreign ministry of India released dates of the trip after announcing the tour earlier this month, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif to wish his cricket team luck in the World Cup.

Officials have not said whether the visit and Modi’s ice-breaking phone call would result in resumption of the peace talks between the foreign secretaries of the nuclear-armed neighbors — abruptly cancelled by the Indian government last year.

The bilateral relations in Sough Asian neighbors soured over increased incidents of firing along the border and India’s halting the talks in August, after a consultative meeting of Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi with separatist Kashmiri leaders before beginning of the dialogue.